The Race for the US Senate – Mudslinging: an Editorial

With this term, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is retiring his seat in the US Senate. This leaves a space available for Connecticut politicians looking for the Senate seat, mainly Linda McMahon and Chris Murphy. While watching my favorite TV shows on prime time, I’ve noticed that every other commercial is political. We’ve all seen the advertisements on TV of one candidate attacking the other. Then a couple days later we see an ad from the opposing side with a comeback, repudiating what the other has said. How are we supposed to know what each candidate supports let alone what the truth is?

Does anyone remember the term “mudslinging” from your US history class? If not, it basically meant that the candidates would advertise something they made up about the other, and they were preposterous ideas. The strategy started in the 1820s, and we are back to it again in today’s politics. We don’t know what our candidates support because of this new form of mudslinging; we only hear what Linda McMahon supports in an ad from Chris Murphy that is tearing her down, and we only hear what Murphy supports in ads from Linda McMahon. They are trying to tell us not to vote for their opponent and rarely do I see an ad that says “Vote for me because this is what I believe!”

The Constitution says that we have freedom of the press, which means we can advertise whatever we want (with very few limitations). These ads, however, are personally degrading each Senate candidate. They are desperately defending themselves against each other. In doing so they continue attacking their opponent. So far we have yet to see an advertisement from President Obama that degrades Mitt Romney or an ad the other way around. It seems that the presidential candidates, at least for the time being, have more respect for each other in the media than our Senatorial candidates.

By now we’ve all probably seen the ads. I am embarrassed to say that these people are the people who will run our government. Hopefully, the ads will stop as the problem is addressed. Who knows how the election is going to turn out, but the campaigns are sickening. Here’s what the candidates believe according to their websites:

Personally I don’t know what to think of these two. I’m lucky my eighteenth birthday isn’t until after the election because I don’t know what to believe. Politicians make promises in order to get into office, and once they’re there, they do almost the exact opposite. I’m worried for our government on both the national and state level. Personality and character has been lost to backbiting and bold-faced lying. I like the politicians of the old days: honest, responsible, and friendly. Hopefully, Connecticut voters will make a good decision for the better of our government.